Intersecting Lives – Sermon, 27 Oct 2019
I came upon a verse from Psalm 13 in the Greek Septuagint version of the Bible which struck me as something I had never noticed before:
Psalm 13:5 (LXX) ἐκεῖ ἐδειλίασαν φόβῳ, οὗ οὐκ ἦν φόβος…, translated as: There they dreaded with fear, where there was no fear… I had never read anything like this in the Bible, so I decided to look into it.
Psalm 13 in the Septuagint (LXX) is Psalm 14 in the Hebrew text of the Bible. Almost all English Bibles are based on the Hebrew text of what we call the Old Testament. And Psalm 14:5 in our English Bibles reads: There they are in great terror… There is nothing analogous to the second half of the sentence in Greek, where there was no fear. I don’t know which is more correct, the Hebrew or the Greek version? But I take my starting point today from the Greek version.
Isn’t it true, that most of the time we fear where there is no fear, nothing to be afraid of? Indeed, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, as a great US president said it. But Jesus showed the truth about fear long before Roosevelt. Throughout his teaching and healing ministry, Jesus exposed fear for what it was – myth, fake news.
The Jews lived under very strict rules about women and their bodies, about dead corpses, and hundreds of other situations that made people “unclean”. Jesus repeatedly showed that there was nothing to fear; these rules were born of superstition and imitations of pagan practices. So in today’s Gospel reading he is touched by a woman with a flow of blood, and he touches a dead girl – both big no-no’s.
But there is a lot more going on in this Gospel reading. A friend had asked me about Mark’s version of this double miracle; whether there was any significance to the number 12 that is a factor in both healings – the woman with flow of blood for 12 years, and the 12-year-old girl. I answered that it was probably a coincidence. But I also allowed myself the freedom to speculate a mystical meaning. Numbers play a big role in the Bible, and the number 12 was one of the most significant – 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Christ! So I speculated whether the Old and the New are symbolised by the number 12. But I concluded that it was probably a coincidence anyway. Now I’m not so sure. I think the number 12 is significant, after all – very significant!
Christ came to unite, to break down the barriers that fear creates. Two thousand years later, his message still hasn’t gotten through! Two women, from two different economic and social classes. But the number 12 brought them face-to-face with Jesus. And both become part of God’s new people, people brought into unity by Christ.
The twelve years that the woman was ill correspond to the girl’s twelve years of age. The girl was born just as the woman was beginning her long struggle with disease and exclusion. One house experienced the joy of birth while another house saw the start of twelve years of suffering. But their stories intersected here, in the presence of Jesus. In our own neighborhoods also, one house experiences joy while another house a couple doors down is facing suffering or turmoil.
Our stories intersect thanks to Jesus. And that of course is what the church is meant to be, where lives intersect, under the healing power and presence of Jesus Christ. He invites us to come out of hiding, to touch him and touch each other! And that is even more pertinent today than 2000 years ago. We hide in our smart homes and smart cars and smartphones.
“Power has gone out from me”, Jesus declared. Power! The power to heal, the power to overcome barriers and walls, power to banish fear and superstition. Reach out and touch Jesus like the woman did in today’s Gospel reading. Even if you can only touch one tiny part of him. He’s got power to spare! Let his power guide you to fulness of life. Let the church be filled with his power again!